SCARBOROUGH — For the second time in his young career, Reid Lanpher is a NASCAR champion.
Lanpher, of Manchester, won his fourth straight Pro Series feature race to close out the season at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway on Saturday night, locking up his second NASCAR Whelen All-American Series track championship in the last three seasons. Only 19 years old, Lanpher won six races in total this season at Beech Ridge — one of nine feature wins in 2017.
He was also the track champion in 2015. Lanpher will also represent Maine as the state champion at the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series awards weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, in December.
“We had a good car all year long. It wasn’t going to be easy. There definitely wasn’t any point this season where we thought we had this thing. I knew it was going to come down to the last week of the season, and it did. I’m sure thankful that we got it.”
Curtis Gerry of Waterboro, the 2016 Beech Ridge champion and winner of the Oxford 250 last Sunday, finished second in the standings by 47 points unofficially.
Lanpher held off former track champion Dan McKeage of Gorham and Jacob Dore of Sanford for the victory on Saturday night. After starting 10th in the 18-car field, Lanpher passed McKeage — who led the first 33 laps — on the outside off of the track’s second turn to take the lead on lap 34.
Gerry finished 10th.
Lanpher has also won a pair of races at Oxford Plains Speedway this season and the Pro All Stars Series 300 at Beech Ridge in April.
“A lot of wins. We’ve never had this many wins,” Lanpher said. “To win the last four straight is unbelievable — literally unbelievable. I’m just blown away. We had a lot of luck along the way and the crew’s put in a lot of extra effort. I’m just one lucky kid. I certainly know it, and I’m thankful for it.”
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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